Friday, July 28, 2006

THESE BEERS ARE MESHUGGAH-GOOD

Last night the wife & I went to the closing night of San Francisco’s Jewish Film Festival, which always entails having to wade through a massive dessert buffet after the film is done – bummer, hunh? This time they were pouring bottles of HE’BREW as well, a brand I’ve been a fan of for many years. I first bought a bottle of this stuff on a lark because I thought the bottle was kinda ridiculous – a bearded rabbi drinking a beer, the “SHMALTZ BREWING COMPANY”, etc. I also thought that it was a sub-brand of Anderson Valley Brewing, which I’m pretty sure I was wrong about – but I know they used to sell He’Brew products in their company store, because I bought a pint glass & some bombers there around 2000 or so. Anyway, looks like they’re their own beast, and they are brewing in New York now – but kudos to them for working on tie-ins with Jewish film festivals and Judaica in general; that’s some good target marketing, folks.

I’ll also say that even though I only got two 4-oz. tastes out of plastic cups of their MESSIAH BOLD and GENESIS 10/10 beers, they were both outstanding. I’m not 100% positive which was which, and the two unpaid, undermotivated festival volunteers I asked gave me contradictory answers. That said, I am immediately moved to hit a store this weekend to grab a couple bottles of these before they disappear – the GENESIS 10/10 in particular looks like more of a seasonal, and I’m pretty sure that was the super-dark, incredibly flavorful ale I was drinking. Stay tuned.

3 comments:

He'brew is a contract brewing operation that has had their stuff brewed in a couple of different locations over the years. Anderson Valley brewed for them originally, but I think they're currently being brewed at Olde Saratoga in New York, and quite possibly at Mendocino Brewing in Cali as well, since Mendocino owns Olde Saratoga.

The government liquor stores here in Ontario carried the Genesis Ale for a while a couple of years ago, but I guess sales weren't great as it was gone after a few months. Too bad, I thought it was a pretty decent beer. I tried the Bittersweet Lennys R.I.P.A in Michigan last weekend, and found it a bit harsh and poorly integrated - definately a beer to age a bit, I'd say.

By the way, which movie at JFF did you see? I stay near the Castro Theater every summer, and always catch a few of the films. My favorite this year was From Shtetl to Swing, documenting how Heavy Shtetl Music (klezmer) was instrumental (sorry!) in bringing jazz into the mainstream.